By Jonathan Tay

An online survey conducted by JobsCentral, from 19 August to 16 September 2011, revealed that researchers are among the thriftiest workers in Singapore. Nearly 60 percent of the respondents who are in the field of Research and Development (R&D) have pointed out that they would set aside more than 20% of their monthly income as savings.

By Justin Thompson

Holiday movies have some of the most beloved and loathed characters in cinema. Remember Macaulay Culkin in “Home Alone”? Or Ebenezer Scrooge from any incarnation of Dicken’s classic “A Christmas Carol”? While most are larger than life with hyperbolic characteristics, many of their traits can be found in the people that surround us at work every day.

By JobsCentral editorial team

Further education is essential for career progression, or even survival, in the modern corporate world. Yet, there is a declining trend in the number of Singaporeans intending to upgrade their skill sets in recent years.

According to the 2011 JobsCentral Learning Rankings & Survey, which polled 3,413 Singapore residents between the ages of 16 and 65 between August and September 2011, about 3 out of every 10 respondents reveal that they have no intentions of pursuing further education – an increase from 2 in every 10 in 2009.

By Juliet Soh

70.3% of the respondents expect pay increases of at least 25% more after obtaining their next level of academic qualifications, according to the 2011 JobsCentral Learning Rankings & Survey. Further, 22.8% of young working adults expect to be paid at least 50% more.

A total of 3,413 respondents took the 2011 JobsCentral Learning Rankings & Survey, which was conducted online from August to September this year. The survey respondents were predominantly young working adults aged 21-40 years old. This survey has an error margin of 1.68%, at a 95% confidence level and has been conducted every year since 2009.

By Jacky Tai

If you are one of those people who want to be a brand consultant because you think it is easy and glamorous, then you should probably look for another job because you probably will not last six months in the consulting line if you think like that.

When people ask me what it is that I enjoy about my work, I always tell them it's the outcome that I really love - when I see clients grow 250% in two years in the middle of a global financial crisis; when I see clients being able to double their selling price; when I see clients being acquired for 17 times price-earnings ratio when the industry average is only three; when I see clients' IPO being 30 times oversubscribed when the norm for their industry is 20. These are the gratifying aspects of the job but the process is a difficult one. You see the "glamorous" outcomes but what it takes to get there is anything but.

In the rest of this article, I will share with you what it takes to survive in the brand consulting industry and you have to be able to survive before you can succeed.

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By Melissa Korn

Can’t step away from the BlackBerry? Leaving a work voicemail at 10 p.m.? You might be a workaholic. No surprises there.

But new research suggests that may not be a bad thing.

A paper out of the Rouen Business School in France says workaholism – defined by work involvement, feelings of being compelled to work and work enjoyment – can actually be constructive.

As long as the compulsion to work is self-driven, it can lead to personal feelings of accomplishment (I finished that project! I solved that accounting problem!) and benefit the organization (That project is finished ahead of schedule! Our clients think we’re great!) according to Yehuda Baruch, the management professor behind the study.

By Juliet Soh

Taking time off for a vacation is important to avoid burning out and to reward yourself for the hard work in 2011, but the thought of coming back to work and being faced with tasks that have piled up while you’re away can make you more stressed. Before you pack your luggage and leave your working worries behind, here are some tips to help you make the spectre of returning back to your desk that less intimidating:

BEFORE YOU GO

By Juliet Soh

Public relations professionals are found to be the unhappiest workers in Singapore for two years in a row, according to an annual survey by JobsCentral, one of Singapore's leading job portals.

A total of 2,385 respondents took the 2011 JobsCentral Work Happiness Indicator Survey, which was conducted online from August to September this year. This survey has been conducted every year since 2009.

PR professionals scored 53.5 in the JobsCentral Work Happiness Indicator this year and 50.4 last year, also the lowest score in 2010.

The top 5 job functions with the unhappiest workers in Singapore are:

by Kaitlin Madden

Work dreams come in many forms. There’s the exciting “I finally got a promotion” dream, the awkward “I kissed a married co-worker” dream, and the boring “just another Tuesday at the office” dream.

And then, there’s the kind of work dream that awakens us from our sleep in a cold sweat. The horrible “I drew a blank during a presentation in front of the CEO” – type dream, also known as the work nightmare.

As awful as work nightmares can be while we’re having them, though, they can actually be very constructive, says Lauri Loewenberg, dream expert and author of the book “Dream On It, Unlock Your Dreams Change Your Life.”